Cresselia [QC 0/3]

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Cresselia

QC:
[0/3]
GP:[0/1]

[OVERVIEW]

* Cresselia sports massive 120 / 120 / 130 bulk, allowing it to check numerous offensive Pokemon through virtue of its sheer bulk.
* Cresselia almost never is KOed by any unboosted hits. With such stellar bulk, it has the ability to boost with Calm Mind multiple times, making Cresselia a potent setup sweeper for bulkier teams.
* Cresselia's ability Levitate allows it to stop strong Ground-type moves completely, as well as makes Cresselia immune to damage from Spikes, increasing its longevity.
* However, with the omnipresence of Hippowdon, Cresselia often finds its most reliable form of recovery in Moonlight to be heavily impaired in many situations from the effects of Sand Stream.
* Cresselia also lacks any way to heal itself of bothersome status conditions, making it rely on a Heal Bell-using teammate to cure it of burns and poison.
* A Psychic typing also leaves Cresselia vulnerable to common moves like U-turn, Knock Off, and Pursuit.
* With an unimpressive 75 Special Attack, Cresselia only manages to become threatening with multiple Calm Mind boosts, and usually can't find opportunities to deal big damage without them.

[SET]
name: Calm Mind
move 1: Calm Mind
move 2: Moonlight
move 3: Psyshock / Psychic
move 4: Moonblast / Hidden Power Fighting
item: Leftovers / Colbur Berry
ability: Levitate
nature: Bold
evs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========

* Calm Mind makes Cresselia into a potent bulky sweeper, allowing it to boost its already high Special Defense, as well as bolstering its Special Attack to levels where it poses a respectable offensive presence.
* Moonlight is Cresselia's most reliable form of recovery, allowing it to prevent itself from being worn down throughout a match.
* Cresselia can choose either Psychic or Psyshock as it's main STAB move; Psyshock can nail targets such as Primarina on their weaker physically defensive side, as well as hit opposing Calm Mind users for more damage, while Psychic provides overall more damage output thanks to the increase in base power.
* Moonblast is Cresselia's go-to coverage option to threaten strong Dark-types that threaten it, with the added bonus of hitting Dragon-types for super effective damage.
* Hidden Power Fighting can be used on Cresselia to hit Bisharp much harder than a Moonblast could. However, it is significantly weaker against other Dark-types compared to Moonblast.

Set Details
========

* Maximum investment in HP and 200 Defense EVs with a Bold nature give Cresselia an incredible amount of physical bulk, and a respectable amount of special bulk that it can reinforce via Calm Mind.
* 56 Speed EVs allows Cresselia to outspeed Modest Primarina, meaning it can always attack Primarina or heal with Moonlight before it has a chance to attack.
* Leftovers give Cresselia a form of passive recovery that it can utilize to not be overly reliant on Moonlight.
* Colbur Berry is an item Cresselia can use to soften hits from strong Dark-type moves that are commonly aimed at it.

Usage Tips
========

* Cresselia fails to do large damage without any Calm Mind boosts, so finding opportunities for Cresselia to obtain multiple boosts is important.
* Cresselia should avoid facing off with any status-spreading Pokemon such as Klefki, Blissey, and Mew, as status conditions can often severely impair Cresselia's bulk. However, absorbing a potential paralysis or burn in some cases can be useful, as it can allow Cresselia to avoid being poisoned by Toxic.
* One should only attempt to sweep with Cresselia when there are no ways left for the opponent to efficiently damage it. As such, Pokemon that can threaten Cresselia with powerful Bug-, Ghost-, or Dark-type moves, such as Scizor, Bisharp, amd Krookodile should be removed beforehand.
* While Cresselia also makes an effective pivot for many dangerous offensive Pokemon, this should be kept to a minimum, if possible, as Moonlight has a mere 8 PP that can be burned through fairly quickly if used recklessly.

Team Options
========

* Magneton makes a great partner for Cresselia, as Magneton can remove pesky Steel-types such as Empoleon, Scizor, or Forretress that annoy Cresselia's usual moveset. In addition, Cresselia is immune to many strong Ground type moves aimed at Magneton.
* Heal Bell or Aromatherapy users such as Blissey and Togekiss make good teammates for Cresselia, since it can rely on them to cure burns and poisons by using Heal Bell.
* Cresselia pairs well with Fairy-types, such as Primarina or Clefable, can often sponge many strong Dark- and Bug-type attacks aimed at it.
* Cresselia can find a decent spot on sun-based teams, as Drought-users like Torkoal and Ninetales can remove troublesome Sandstorm conditions that impede Cresselia's Moonlight. Likewise, Cresselia can also offer a good stop to many Ground- and Rock-type moves aimed at Torkoal and Ninetales.
* Toxic Spikes users such as Tentacruel and Roserade also make excellent teammates for Cresselia, as Toxic Spikes quickly wear down a good number of offensive threats to Cresselia.


[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

* Cresselia can forgo Calm Mind's boosting capabilities to use a variety of status and supporting moves, such as Toxic, Thunder Wave, and Lunar Dance. However, this removes the offensive threat that Cresselia can impose, and makes it easier for Pokemon such as Krookodile to take advantage of it.
* Substitute is an option on Calm mind sets to help Cresselia avoid troublesome staus conditions. However, removing a coverage option from Cresselia is often a disservice to its sweeping capabilities.
* Cresselia can use Hidden Power Fire to threaten Scizor more than its standard options usually do. However, this leaves Cresselia with no way of pressuring Dark-types like Krookodile and Hydreigon.
* ice Beam is an option that Cresselia to use that can nail Gliscor for good damage; this makes it impossible for Swords Dance Gliscor to safely boost alongside it and inflict big damage with boosted Facade or Knock Off. In addition, Cresselia can still hit Krookodile and Hydreigon for super effective damage.
* Cresselia can potentially make good use of Grass Knot, as it lures in Unaware Quagsire, Swampert and Hippowdon that would seek to phaze a boosted Cresselia midgame, opening the door for a number of physical sweepers that enjoy Hippowdon or Quagsire removed.

Checks and Counters
===================

**Steel-types**: Bulky Steel-types such as Empoleon or Klefki can annoy Cresselia by walling its fairly weak Psychic/Fairy coverage and threatening to land potential Toxic on it. Offensive Steels like Bisharp, Doublade, or Scizor not only wall Cresselia's usual coverage but can use Cresselia as setup bait and hit it with their super effective secondary STAB moves.
**Unaware Users**: Unaware Quagsire and Clefable can easily stall Cresselia out, as they take pathetic damage from its unboosted attacks and can continually heal off the small sums of damage Cresselia will deal to them.
**Dark-types**: Cresselia is threatened by strong Dark-type moves such as Knock Off and Dark Pulse coming from the likes of Bisharp and Krookodile. Using Pursuit can also remove a sizable chunk of Cresselia's HP, but will almost certainly not OHKO it. Most Dark-types must be wary of switching directly into Cresselia's Moonblast, especially if Cresselia doesn't recover HP with Leftovers, as it could be holding a Colbur Berry.
**Hippowdon**: Hippowdon can instantly impede Cresselia's defensive capability by setting weather via Sand Stream, only allowing Cresselia to recover 25% of its health. In addition, Hippowdon takes little from boosted hits from Cresselia before phazing it with Whirlwind, and also has the option of using Toxic to limit the time Cresselia has in the game. Whirlwind variants will lose to Cresselia in a last Pokemon situation, however.
**Toxic**: Toxic is Cresselia's worst enemy, severely limiting its defensive potential and time that it can be active in the game. While badly poisoned, Cresselia won't be able to create the multiple turns that it needs to set up multiple Calm Mind boosts, and will become dead weight both offensively and defensively.
 
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